Muslim group eyes camp

Donated Adirondack site would welcome all faiths; no controversy expected

By DENNIS YUSKO Staff writer

Published 12:01 am, Friday, February 18, 2011

LAKE LUZERNE -- One of North America's largest Muslim organizations wants to build a summer camp in the Adirondacks on 114 acres it recently acquired.

The Islamic Circle of North America, a Muslim advocacy group based in New York City, hopes to raise money to develop a camp for children and families of all religions on land donated to it last year, Muhammad Rahman, ICNA's secretary general, said in an interview Thursday.

"Once we have some resources, we will submit a plan to the community," Rahman said. "Then we'll see what happens."

His comments followed a report in The Chronicle, a weekly publication in Glens Falls, that a doctor named Sayeeda Tahera Jafar transferred the deed on the 114.4-acre property to the ICNA last week. Word about the donation started moving around this North Country town of no more than 3,000 people on Thursday.

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"It's kind of their business, and it's probably a good thing," Steve Mackey, co-owner of Luzerne Market, said of the ICNA's plans. "We're Americans, a melting pot."

Mackey checked with his employees to find out their thoughts and said that he didn't expect the issue to explode into a controversy the way the plans for a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center site in Manhattan did last year.

The property is a former summer camp that has several lakes tied through streams used for canoeing. It includes one large body of water named Second Lake and a part of Third Lake, according to Warren County maps.

The land is assessed at nearly $1 million, on which ICNA will pay property taxes, said Rahman, who came to America from Bangladesh in 1981.

ICNA was established in 1968 to support Muslim communities in North America. It attracts up to 15,000 persons to its annual conferences, Rahman said.

"The organization seeks to obtain the pleasure of Allah through working for the establishment of Islam in all spheres of life," its website says. "ICNA has many projects, programs and activities which are designed to help in the process of molding the individual and reforming society at large."

U.S. law enforcement agencies have investigated, but never prosecuted, ICNA for terrorist connections.

In 2009, five ICNA members from Virginia were detained in Pakistan for allegedly wanting to harm Americans. ICNA officials responded by publicly rejecting extremism and violence.

On Valentine's Day, several hundred Americans protested an ICNA fundraiser in California, citing controversial and anti-American statements made by two of the event's speakers, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Amir Abdel Malik Ali. Rahman said the meeting raised money for homeless women.

Rahman said that some Americans held misconceptions about the Muslim religion. If ICNA opens a camp in Lake Luzerne, it will be a completely open enterprise, he said.

"Muslims are living side by side with Americans," Rahman said. "I love America. This is my country."

Lake Luzerne Town Supervisor Gene Merlino could not be reached for comment.